Christmas: A God Who Seeks Your Love

 1. Christmas and Freedom - The mystery of the Incarnation does not appear as something dazzling or imposing, which would force us to accept it; nor does it appear as something common, or so easy to understand that it would become unworthy of our attention. It is not about a God who agrees with me on everything and walks with me no matter what I do, nor is it about a God who forces His will upon me.

The mystery of the Incarnation is presented to us as something relevant, different, and extremely important because it gives meaning to our lives. It is presented to us with clear signs, with miracles and wonders that awaken us from the numbness of the ordinary, with unmistakable indications of God's presence in our midst. God manifests himself clearly to humankind.

But He does not overwhelm us with miracles: His body shines only once (in the Transfiguration, for three people only), His voice thunders only once (but from the cross), He heals all who approach Him but tries to hide it, when He is irritated He gets upset, and when He is wounded He bleeds. He lets Himself be wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger, and He lets Himself die on the cross. He rose again, but He did not appear to everyone after his death, he did not eat with everyone, not everyone was able to touch his wounds.

If God had dazzled us with his divinity, we would have felt compelled to believe and submit to His will. God did not do this. He did not want to take away our freedom to believe; he wanted man to have the last word. He wanted to be accepted through an act of freedom; He wanted to be followed out of love.

2. Christmas and Joy - They say that Christmas is a season of joy. But joy comes from love. What brings you joy at Christmas? If you like turkey, that will bring you joy. If you like holidays, days off, that will be your joy. If you like being with your family, then this may bring you joy. Or is it the presents, perhaps...? But those things are not the joy of Christmas. Those things don't happen only at Christmas, and they may even be missing at Christmas.

The joy of Christmas is the joy of love, of love for a Person. The joy of loving God. And why do we rejoice in this love? Because we realize that God loves us, He returns the love we have for Him... In reality, God surprises us with the fact that He loved us first. We were looking for a heart in this life, someone who would convince us of our worth, someone who would choose us and love us, someone who would make us feel that we were worthwhile... and God had already done so. At Christmas we rejoice in God's love for us. He becomes a child in Bethlehem because He wants to be close to us. He becomes a pilgrim by your side because He wants you to help Him. He draws near to you because he wants to be loved by you.

3. Christmas Today - What we celebrate is not simply the memory of a past event. At Christmas, we prepare for his coming into our own hearts. We remember Jesus’ real and historical coming so that we may receive the benefits of that historical coming in our own history, in our own lives. As a poet once said, ‘It would be of no use to you if Jesus Christ were born a thousand times if he is not yet born within your heart.’ This is what Christmas is: it is the celebration of God’s coming to us, not only that He came, but that He came because He wants to come now into your own heart, He wants to live in you. When He was born 2,000 years ago, you were not there, but He was thinking of you. And this Christmas, Christ can finally do what He wanted all along, what He thought two thousand years ago: to live in your heart.

When Christ was born, He was welcomed by Mary. Today He wants to be welcomed by you. It is not easy to welcome a new child into the family, and it is not easy to welcome Christ into our hearts either. Christ does not come to condone everything we do; Christ challenges us to do better because He wants the best for us. But it is not that if we do better, then He will love us. He already loves us, and all He is asking is that we love Him back, that we change for the better out of love for Him.

Christ comes to ask for love; Christ wants you to choose Him freely, to realise how much He loved you, to be enticed by that love and to respond with your own “yes.” Perhaps you feel that you do not have much to offer, that your heart is as poor as a manger... But if you allow Him to be born there, that poor manger will become the centre of the universe and will attract the poor, the wise, and even the angels with its brightness.

What is Christ asking of you today? How can you make your heart a cleaner place for him to be born? What needs to be removed from that manger? What needs to be added to make it more comfortable? May the Blessed Virgin help us to prepare a place for Jesus into our hearts.